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Twelve schools in Nash County will be getting stormwater assessments, thanks to a grant from the American Rescue Plan Act.

The Local Assistance for Stormwater Infrastructure Investments grant for $129,560 to Sound Rivers was announced this week. The grant will fund in-depth studies of each campus’ existing stormwater issues, as well as propose projects that can fix, or alleviate, those issues.

“We’ll be walking around every campus and finding all the stormwater problems on those campuses,” Clay said. “Then, we will have a nice stack of reports to use when we’re looking to fund those projects.”

Sound Rivers received a grant to do similar reporting through a state Environmental Enhancement Grant in 2016 — the projects proposed in that round are now coming to fruition, Clay said. Where previously the reports listed proposed projects, descriptions of the projects with estimates given for the cost of each, Kris Bass Engineering will take reporting a step farther.

“When Simon (Gregg) and Kris Bass Engineering do the reports, they do the same, but they also pick out the top 3 projects for each one of the schools, flesh them out and present the full project,” Clay said, adding that it gives Sound Rivers’ a leg up in grant awarding.

The 12 Nash County schools are in addition to Rocky Mount High School, Southern Nash High School and Northern Nash High School that are currently being assessed, courtesy of a 2020 EEG program funding. A total of 15 Nash County schools will have stormwater assessment studies and projects on a waiting list.  Clay said he, Mitch Woodward, N.C. State University’s area specialized agent, watersheds and water quality, Simon and other Kris Bass engineers will begin the assessments as soon as possible.